SXSW attendees will get a chance to participate in a mock election simulating one or more of the standard ways we vote today—and will vote in the near future—in the United States. But, there’s a catch. There is also a powerful adversary watching (played by another attendee complete with optional bad guy mask!) who gets to try to manipulate votes. Free & Fair team members will explain the pros and cons of different technologies, and the kinds of vulnerabilities many voting machines contain.

Attendees can also learn the basics of Risk-Limiting Audits (RLAs), which are a simple yet powerful way to check whether votes have been counted as cast. Actual audits will be conducted to help participants understand why RLAs should be a regular part of the voting process. Free & Fair team members will discuss RLAs in relation to the current recount laws in the USA, as well as to other forms of post-election audits based upon physical evidence.

Free & Fair provides Open Source elections systems meeting the same high reliability and security standards that the US federal government demands for national security. Our goal is to usher in a new era of provably secure elections, and to help election officials escape the never-ending treadmill of replacing chronically insecure systems that quickly become obsolete or expensive to maintain.

ABOUT US

We provide elections services and systems meeting the same reliability and security standards as the US federal government demands for national security. Our system designs and architecture are reviewed by the world's foremost experts in academia and industry. Our products are provably correct, secure, and open source.